May 11, 2021 SHARE
Each year, the Department of Biology in Arts & Sciences at Washington University in St. Louis awards the Spector Prize to a graduating senior in recognition of academic excellence and outstanding undergraduate achievement in research.
The award is in memory of Marion Smith Spector, a 1938 graduate who studied zoology under the late Viktor Hamburger.
Ludwig
This year’s recipient is Ella Ludwig, a senior majoring in biology in Arts & Sciences. Ludwig was nominated by her mentor, Malia Gehan, assistant member and principal investigator at the Donald Danforth Plant Science Center, who focuses on improving resistance to temperature stress.
Ludwig’s thesis, titled “Assessing Natural Variation in
St Louis, an ag innovation ecosystem and a national model of cluster development bizjournals.com - get the latest breaking news, showbiz & celebrity photos, sport news & rumours, viral videos and top stories from bizjournals.com Daily Mail and Mail on Sunday newspapers.
Six to receive honorary degrees from Washington University
Two Presidential Medal of Freedom recipients, gun safety activist, former senator, medical researcher and legal historian being recognized
May 5, 2021 SHARE
Washington University in St. Louis will award six honorary degrees during the university’s Commencement ceremonies, May 20-21.
The university also will bestow academic degrees on approximately 3,200 members of the Class of 2021 during its 160th Commencement.
National Basketball Association great and social justice advocate
Kareem Abdul-Jabbar will deliver theCommencement address and receive an honorary doctor of humanities degree.
The other honorary degree recipients and their degrees are:
Christopher S. “Kit” Bond, the former U.S. senator who earned a reputation over his 40 years of distinguished public service as a skilled statesman able to build coalitions and effectively work across party lines, doctor of laws;
IMAGE: Debamalya Chatterjee/Penn State
What traits can be improved in corn with the ufo1 gene’s help?
“Certainly, stress tolerance, but also likely seed development, which has implications in seed yield as well as improved biomass,” Chopra said. “And we would like to develop a better plant type that could grow in more dense culture, yet still be more productive. And finally, we need to look at resiliency and sustainability. Can we breed corn lines that get the same amount of yield with lower fertilizer inputs and need less water?”
Chopra started research on the Maize ufo1 gene because of its association with an orange/red pigmentation in the mutant corn line. Celebrated maize geneticist Charles Burnham, at the University of Minnesota, identified this conspicuous ufo1 mutant circa 1960. Another well-known maize geneticist, Derek Styles, with the University of Victoria, Canada, a student of Burnham’s, then chose the name, which stands for “unstable factor for orange.